The J. O. Etchison, Jr. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,696 discloses a system for assembling and wiring connector plugs for use in a communications bay, in which a row of the connector plugs is mounted in a respective backplane which has been fabricated from sheet metal. The connector plugs in respective pairs of the backplanes then are interwired in a fabricating station to form prewired assemblies each including two of the backplanes and their associated connector plugs, interconnected by wiring therebetween. Generally, these wired connector plug-backplane assemblies then are mounted in a communications bay frame, and further wired to one another in the frame, at another fabricating station. In addition, where it is desired to expand the capacity of existing bay frames in a central office, wired connector plug-backplane assemblies can be shipped to the field for installation in the existing bay frames.
In communications equipment of the type disclosed in the Etchison et al. patent, the electrical design of the equipment is such that the wired connector plug-backplane assemblies for each bay frame had to be mounted in the bay frame and interwired to one another before the equipment in the bay frame could be electrically tested for wiring defects. Accordingly, since this wiring and testing could best be accomplished at the manufacturing location, the connector plug-backplane assemblies generally were mounted in the bay frames and interwired in a factory, as above-described.
The subject invention relates to a unitary molded plastic backplane having high strength and resistance to flexing, for use in more recently proposed communications equipment. The electrical design of this equipment is such that two rows of the connector plugs can be mounted and interwired to produce a self-contained assembly which can be tested for wiring defects prior to mounting of the interwired plugs in a bay frame. Accordingly, the bay frames can be shipped directly to the central office from a frame manufacturing location, and the wired connector plug-backplane assemblies can be assembled and tested in a different manufacturing location. The wired connector plug-backplane assemblies then can be shipped to the central office for mounting in the bay frames in the central office. Thus, the necessity for shipping the bay frames to the wired connector plug-backplane assembling location and then to the central office after the wired connector plug-backplane assemblies have been mounted therein, and the necessity for providing storage and assembling space for the bay frames at the wired connector plug-backplane assembling location, can be eliminated.